Reader Recommendations: Veterans Day

"Saluting America's Veterans" is a new website where U.S. military veterans are being invited to share personal remembrances, photos, and videos documenting their war experiences. The site's being launched this week in conjunction with "The War," the new Ken Burns documentary that tells the story of WWII from the perspective of a handful of service members. Anchored by a profile of Burns and exclusive video excerpts from the documentary, this interactive, multimedia website aims to serve as a living museum, a first-hand memorial dedicated to veterans of all wars and all military branches. Rounding out the site are dozens of features about American veterans originally published in American Profile, the weekly print magazine that celebrates hometown life.

Very good history, (including flight orders, photographs, diaries, letters, etc.) of the 64th Troop Carrier Group in World War II--including the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 35th Troop Carrier Squadrons. Just click on "History" at the "Main Menu."

In late 1941, American and Filipino soldiers who lost the desperate battle to defend the Bataan peninsula were forced to march through the jungle to Japanese prison camps. Three years later, only 500 men in the Cabanatuan camp had survived the brutality of their captors and epidemics of tropical diseases. Fearing the Japanese would murder the remaining prisoners before they could be liberated, the U.S. sent an elite Ranger battalion on a secret mission to save them.